What's it like to need an abortion?

In honor of yesterday’s anniversary of Roe v. Wade, check out Salon’s terrific interview with abortion doctor Susan Wicklund. What a breath of fresh air and honesty Wicklund is after all that drivel from even Democrats (Hillary Clinton, this means you) about what a “tragedy” abortion is and how it is or should be rare. Wicklund points out that there’s nothing rare about abortion—it’s the most common minor surgery in the U.S. and Wicklund says 40 percent of women have had one.

There is no typical patient situation. It isn't all students who want to stay in school, it isn't all career women who want to continue with their careers and not have children right now. It isn't all single women who aren't married and not ready to have a child on their own. And it isn't all married women who had kids but now feel financially strapped. It's all of those women.

To think about this issue honestly we have to think what it would be like to be unwillingly pregnant.

People say they would never have an abortion because of their religion or for whatever other reason. Then they're sitting on that table, we're ready to start doing the abortion, and they want to tell me about how, when they were 17, they made a promise to be abstinent, and here they are at 21, not married and with an unwanted pregnancy. They just want to talk about it and say, I didn't realize -- I didn't understand what it would be like when it was me.

Here’s a note passed on to me by an abortion fund after I donated a small amount of money:

I am a 31-year-old single mother of three. I am currently unemployed and I don’t receive support for my three children. After I found out I was pregnant my partner was killed. My children and I are having a very rough time financially and I didn’t feel it was fair to any of us to bring another child into our situation. So I made a decision that was best for all of us.
Due to our financial situation I could not come up with the full amount to terminate the pregnancy. The counselor here at the Center for Women’s Health understood my situation and feelings. She worked to help me very hard. I hope that I am able to help someone else one day in my life.